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In Fashion
Any daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin would have impeccable style, but Charlotte Gainsbourg has also managed to become a singer with impeccable taste. Produced and mostly written by Beck, IRM is a record that's confectionary but compelling, with her girlishness and ennui (mais oui!) wrapped in '60s-inflected kaleidoscopic pop.

Oh My God
Patty Griffin's new record, Downtown Church, is an album of gospel classics and originals that access her bluesy, earthy side. She presides over these songs with the authority of a lady preacher who can deliver the lines, "You won't tell me where you've been/ You've got whiskey rolling down your chin" with a wink and a smile.

Fishing in the Dark
Eels' Mark Oliver Everett is an L.A.- stranded Leonard Cohen in a flannel shirt and an Old Testament beard. His latest record, End Times, is a quiet stunner; even when he sings about the deep, dark holes people sink into, his rough and yearning voice, combined with the swirling, hushed music-box arrangements, turns these songs into comforting companions.